The Verdict

﻿On December 18, 1944 Korematsu's verdict was delivered. In a 6-3 decision, his federal conviction was upheld. The majority of the Supreme Court believed in their responsibility of protecting national security, while the minority defended the constitutional rights of an individual. ﻿

Justice Hugo Black | Courtesy of Library of Congress

Justice Black delivered the majority opinion. He stated that the power of the government outweighed individual rights during wartime and was a "military necessity." "It should be noted, to begin with, that all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group are immediately suspect. That is not to say that all such restrictions are unconstitutional. It is to say that courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny. Pressing public necessity may sometimes justify the existence of such restrictions; racial antagonism never can." "We cannot say that the war-making branches of the Government did not have ground for believing that, in a critical hour, such persons could not readily be isolated and separately dealt with, and constituted a menace to the national defense and safety which demanded that prompt and adequate measures be taken to guard against it."

"He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily." - Justice Hugo Black

The Dissents﻿

Justice Owen Roberts | Courtesy of Library of Congress

"It is the case of convicting a citizen as a punishment for not submitting to imprisonment in a concentration camp, based on his ancestry, and solely because of his ancestry, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition towards the United States." - Justice Roberts

Justice Frank Murphy | Courtesy of Library of Congress

"[There isn't] any denial of the fact that not one person of Japanese ancestry was accused or convicted of espionage or sabotage after Pearl Harbor while they were still free, a fact which is some evidence of the loyalty of the vast majority of these individuals and of the effectiveness of the established methods of combating these evils. I dissent, therefore, from this legalization of racism." - Justice Murphy

Justice Robert Jackson | Courtesy of Library of Congress

"The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by nativity, and a citizen of California by residence. No claim is made that he is not loyal to this country. [His case] consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived." - Justice Jackson